Plasma processing or manufacturing techniques are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC) semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, optoelectronics devices, data storage devices, magneto electronic devices, magneto optic devices, packaged devices, and the like.
Deposition processes are commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing to deposit a layer of material onto a substrate. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is one example of a deposition process, and sputter deposition or sputtering is a common physical vapor deposition method. In sputtering, ions or neutral species are ejected from a target material by high-energy particle bombardment and then deposited onto the substrate using plasma. In some process sequences, it may be desirable to expose the surface to a plasma pre-treatment step before or after the sputter deposition. For site isolated deposition (i.e., deposition on a site isolated region of the substrate), PVD tools typically include an aperture through which the sputtered ions are targeted. While PVD tools are commonly used in the industry, they are limited to performing specific processes and do not permit much flexibility. In some process sequences, it may be desirable to have the capability to perform analysis or characterization of the layers or treated surfaces in-situ (e.g. within the same processing chamber).
As feature sizes continue to shrink on semiconductor devices, improvements, whether in materials, unit processes, or process sequences, are continually being sought in these semiconductor processes. In order to identify different materials, evaluate different unit process conditions or parameters, or evaluate different sequencing and integration of processes, and combinations thereof, it is desirable to process isolated regions of the substrate using different process conditions to improve the efficiency of research and development. This capability is called “combinatorial processing”, and it is generally not performed with tools that are designed specifically for conventional full substrate processing. It is also desirable to subject isolated regions of the substrate to different processing conditions (e.g., localized deposition) in one step of a sequence followed by subjecting the full substrate to a similar processing condition (e.g., full substrate deposition) in another step.
Further developments and improvements, particularly innovations that enable flexibility and increased throughput, and provide combinatorial processing, in semiconductor manufacturing are needed.